Op Sail to Dominate Weekend

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This weekend's events in Hampton Roads will be dominated by Op Sail 2012 which brigs a large number of tall ships to the region.  A parade of sail will begin momentarily as the flotilla of ships moves from off of Virginia Beach and sails through the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel to enter Hampton Roads harbor itself.  The image above shows some of the ships while the video below shows the ships early this morning at anchor. The Virginian Pilot has these descriptions of the event:

Tall ships with billowing sails, the kind that traveled the seas hundreds of years ago, will encircle Hampton Roads on Friday as the boats of OpSail parade through our waters and draw thousands of gawkers.

A flurry of festive events connected to the arrival of these ships includes concerts, air shows, symposiums and fireworks. It all culminates [today] with the Parade of Sail, the arrival of military and warships from different countries plying the waters of Virginia. The international fleet will be manned by hundreds of military officers and crew, with some ships open to tour.

[T]he ships will move through Hampton Roads and up the Elizabeth River to downtown Norfolk. The first ships in the parade will reach Town Point Park in downtown Norfolk at noon. Ships will then proceed to their docks in downtown Norfolk, or in other ports, before opening to the public for tours.

Tropical Storm/Hurricane Watch Ahead of Hanna Extends Over Norfolk Area

UPDATED from the Virginian Pilot as of 5:28 PM:

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The first bands of the storm dropped heavy rain in Hatteras late this morning and then in Nags Head and Hampton Roads this afternoon. Hanna is expected to produce 2 to 4 inches of rain and coastal storm surge flooding is predicted to be 3 to 5 feet above normal tide levels.

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One of the aspects of living on the Southeast coast is the annual ritual of dealing with hurricane and tropical storm threats. The main wild cards are (1) the forecasters never seem to know for sure where the storm tract will actually go and (2) the forecasts of storm strength often prove wrong. Some years back, Hurricane Bonnie was supposed to weaken, etc., and as the newscasters were talking about it weaken, the winds outside were doing the exact opposite. The positive side of Bonnie was that we had world class surf for the East Coast Surfing Championships that year even though much of Oceanfront had no power. Similarly, Hurricane Isabel in 2003 was supposed to be weakening when in fact it did the opposite and the storm caused extensive flooding and tree damage. My boyfriend ended up with two feet of water in his house which backs up to a tidal creek.

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So far Hanna doesn't look too bad, but I prepared if need be to go by the b/f's house and carry stuff upstairs, etc. (since he's out of town). My oldest daughter lives near Oceanfront in Virginia Beach and could well end up staying at her mother's place which is on high ground although surrounded by tall trees. My neighbor has an enormous tree which, were it to fall on one of the adjacent houses would likely do massive damage. The real signal to locals that things might get rough is when the Navy sends the fleet out from the Naval Base since ships run a much smaller risk of damage at sea as opposed to at dock. For now, the fleet remains on standby. Despite it all, I love living near the ocean and Chesapeake Bay.